Wishing you a sweet Christmas!

10 things I love about Christmas:
-the time off work (aka: winter break)
-candlelight service
-gift-giving
-the celebration of joy/peace/love/the birth of Jesus
-big family meals
-Christmas lights
-Christmas music!!
-drinking tea while opening presents from "Santa"
-omelettes and cinnamon rolls on Christmas morning (every year, no matter what)
-did I mention the time off work?

This year, I claimed Christmas dinner's dessert as mine, and the hunt began for the perfect dessert...I think the hunt took me all of 5 minutes because I already knew what I wanted to make: Ollalieberry Roulade.

Okay, it is technically supposed to be Blackberry Roulade, but if you know my family, you know we loooove our ollalieberries, so naturally I ditched the blackberries and went to our trusty freezer for some home-grown ollalieberries! And it was divine.

Plates were licked, "mmm"s were heard for miles around (slight exaggeration), and the recipe was filed in the "definitely make again" file. It was time consuming...three hours...but SO worth it. The cake was light, the filling smooth, and the extra ollalieberry puree drizzled on top was the perfect "cherry on top". Fantastico!

December EXCITEMENT!

The past 48 hours have been intense, exciting, and memorable:

Great friends got engaged, we finally got a good rain storm, the Christmas season was rung in with a Christmas lights trolley ride...and I had a few spare hours to quickly bake a new cake!

The "Happy Engagement/Merry Christmas" Caramelized Banana Cake!

The cake takes time and a little patience (I have never been one to want to let my cakes cool...I get so antsy to see the finished product!) but it isn't too complicated and it is definitely worth the
hours in the kitchen!
Banana cake with a layer of caramelized bananas in the middle, covered in marscapone whipped cream frosting and drizzled with real dulce de leche...yum.

Congrats Tim and Kjersti!
Merry Christmas to all!

Fun Fact: I am ____ years old.

I never before realized how naive children are when it comes to the concept of age...and let me tell you, it is quite entertaining to hear them attempt age guesses!

As a substitute teacher, I am a small mystery. I am the "cool" person, the "new" teacher to get to know, and one of the first questions (other than "are you married" and "do you have kids") is "how old are you?"
When asked, I simply smile, shrug my shoulders, say "guess," and let the games begin.

Kindergarteners and 1st graders are the most entertaining because, with complete seriousness, they begin with "14" or "76". I try not to laugh out loud, but sometimes I can't control myself. They have no real concept of age...it's not their fault. When I tell them that isn't my age, some proceed to go even higher or lower! In their eyes, I have been seen as young as 11 and as old as 92. Awesome.

Third and fourth graders are a little more forgiving...but not completely on target, either. They peg me as in my 30s and occasionally in my 40s. I asked one class why they guessed so old (I mean, do I look that old??) and they said that they guessed those ages because that is the age of their parents. When they realized they guessed too old, they immediately dropped to 18. Gee, thanks.

Today, I actually had a sixth grade class that, despite the one guess of 18, got my age correct pretty quickly.
Lesson learned? If you need some "age therapy", talk to kids under the age of 10...chances are, they will make you feel young if you are old and old if you are young, which will probably make you feel pretty good about yourself.